1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to artificial fishing lures and more particularly to artificial fishing lures with an enclosed hook for the prevention of snagging and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Artificial fishing lures have found extensive use in both sport and commercial fishing. Usually the lure is made to resemble an edible water creature such as a fish, frog or the like which is attractive as food to the fish to be caught. The lure is usually rigged on the outside body thereof with a hook or a plurality of hooks to impale the fish when the fish attempts to feed on the lure.
However, the hooks affixed to the exterior of the lure tend to snag on logs, algae, rocks and other debris on the bottom of a body of water. Because of the snagging problem, there have been extensive attempts to provide a lure which encloses the hook while fishing and releases the hook when the fish strikes, thus impaling the fish on the hook.
Another problem associated with fishing lures and exposed fishing hooks generally is their tendency to snag on the fisherman's clothing, flesh, equipment and the like. This problem is another impetus for the pursuit of a fishing lure with an enclosed hook.
In fishing terminology lures having closures on the hooks to prevent snagging are called "weedless lures".
There have been many attempts to produce weedless lures which have met with varying degress of success. Among these attempts have been lures which enclose the hook in a flexible body and expose the hook when the fish strikes. Many of these lures are effective and perform their desired functions. However, even the effective lures suffer from such defects as lack of durability, complex mechanical hook actuating devices, partially effective fish impaling, and relatively high manufacturing costs due to complex configurations among other deficiencies.
In addition, lures generally are formed by permanently mounting the constituent parts thereof. Thus, if one of the parts is damaged, the entire lure must be discarded.
Exemplary of attempts to provide weedless lures are those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,261,068; 1,786,568; 1,846,538; 2,016,960; 3,748,774; 3,230,656; 1,110,956; 534,506; 2,027,069; 2,558,397; and 2,520,544.
In accordance with the present invention a fishing lure is provided which is weedless, which has replacable and interchangeable parts, and is extremely low in cost.